Chronology
Chronology (Timeline) of Bionic-Related Events This Chronology page is a representation of the chronological sequence of bionic-related events (past and future). Image:Titlecard-sixmilman.jpg|The Six Million Dollar Man Image:Titlecard-bionicwoman.jpg|The Bionic Woman 18th Century =1726= * A group of alien scientists sets up a colony within the San Andreas mountain region. * The legend of Sasquatch begins. 19th Century * None. 20th Century =Between 1919 and 1930= * Rudy Wells is born. (The 11-year range is due to the different years of birth of the three actors who played him - 1919 (Martin Balsam), 1925 Martin E. Brooks, 1930 Alan Oppenheimer) =1926= * Aug 08 - Oscar Goldman born. =1927= * May 3 - James Sommers (Jaime's biological father, future OSI agent) born. =1930= * Oct 26 - Ann Sommers (Jaime's biological mother, future OSI agent) born. =1941= *'Feb 5' - Steve Austin is born. :(Author's note: The production designer on the episode "Ghostly Teletype" made an error on the date of Steve's birth on his driver's license giving the date of birth in 1942.) * Dec 7 - Sam Goldman, the older brother of Oscar Goldman, is killed while stationed in Hawaii during the attack on Pearl Harbor. =1942= * Carl Austin, the father of Steve Austin, is killed when his plane was attacked by Japanese fighters during on a top-secret courier mission over the Himalayas. * Sometime during World War II, Oscar Goldman is involved in underwater demolition operations to block a harbor entrance. =1948= * Carl Franklin, son of Dr. Franklin is born. =1949= * Jun 22 Jaime Sommers is born =1951= * Trish Hollander born. =1954= * Steve graduates from middle school. =1955= * Steve befriends his football team mate, Larry Bronco. =1958= * Dec 31 - Steve and Jaime kiss for the first time at Steve's senior class New Year's party. This suggests that Steve, a high school senior, chose to romance someone who was only nine years old at the time. =1959= * Steve Austin graduates high school. * Steve goes to college. * In college, Steve Austin rooms with John Perry for at least two years, writes a song. * Oscar Goldman joins OSI. =1960= * Dr. Franklin begins his employment at the OSI. =1961= * Apr 16 - OSI undercover agents James and Ann Sommers, Jaime's parents, were killed (presumably murdered) in a car accident. :(Author's note: The production designer on the episode "Jaime's Mother" made an error on the dates on James' and Ann's headstones, giving their dates of death as 1966.) * Jim Elgin and Helen Elgin become the legal guardians of Jaime Sommers. =1962= * Oscar Goldman serves as Executive First Officer under the command of Admiral Richter during The Cuban Missile Crisis. They spend four days and nights on duty during the Cuban Missile Crisis. =1963= * Steve Austin joins the Army out of college; spends several months flying choppers during the Vietnam War until his chopper was shot down. * Larry Bronco is drafted by the NFL. =1964= * Karen divorces Steve Austin (doesn't tell Steve she's pregnant). * Steve Austin transfers to the U.S. Air Force and becomes a test pilot for the SR-71 and other aircraft at Lackland for OTS. (Note: the first pilot telefilm contradicts this by establishing Austin as a civilian, but his background is retconned to include an air force career in the subsequent pilot films.) * During his career in the Air Force, Steve befriends Fred Sloan. =1965= * Steve Austin joins NASA. * At NASA, Steve Austin catches Julian Richmond stealing components. Richmond's arrest lands him in the Florida State Penitentiary for 12 years. * Michael Austin, son of Steve Austin, is born. * Jul 26 - Kate Mason is born. =1966= * Apr 14 - Jaime's Senior Prom (Aladdin's Lamp) at Ojai High School; as seen in Jaime's scrapbook in Mirror Image * Jaime Sommers graduates high school; enrolls at Carnegie Tech majoring in education while playing tennis. =1970= * Dr. Franklin's employment at the OSI is terminated after too many continuing conflicts with his superior, Oscar Goldman. and Oscar Goldman]] =1971= * Karen Austin, Steve's ex-wife, Michael's mother, dies. * Steve and Jaime meet up for last time until they are reunited four years later. * Max, a German Sheppard, nearly burns to death in a lab fire losing all four of his limbs. Rudy Wells uses the dog as a test subject for bionics. =1972= * Dec 07, 12:53AM - Steve Austin blasts off for the moon aboard Apollo 17; walks on it four days later. (Note: Wine, Women and War identifies this mission as Apollo 19, while the "Moon and the Desert" version of the pilot refers to the mission as Moonshot XYZ.) * Dec 11 - Apollo 17 lands on the moon. * Dec 17, 2:24PM - Apollo 17 returns to Earth. * At some point after the Apollo 17 (or 19) mission -- but before the crash -- Austin and his crewmates visit Moscow, where Austin meets Alexi Kaslov. * Bob Crandall embezzles money from his uncle, Horton Budge, to pay for wife Nora's medical bills. Budge finds out and makes Crandall be his chauffeur and sacrifice Christmas bonuses to pay him back. * Oliver Spencer proposes the Project Cyborg to the OSI Board of Directors. (Speculation; the "pilot film" depicts this meeting as occuring simultaneously with Austin's crash) =1973= * According to "Second Chances", a story in Issue #3 of The Six Million Dollar Man comic book, a future version of Steve Austin, propelled back in time, attempts to prevent his past self from taking part in the fateful test flight. He is prevented by Oscar Goldman and Dr. Rudy Wells, who convince future-Steve to allow matters to run their course (establishing that Goldman and Wells were made aware of the crash before it happened as a result). The canonicity of the comic books is up for debate. * The Six Million Dollar Man - While Steve Austin is test piloting an experimental aircraft, a malfunction causes a crash. Austin's injuries are so severe, he loses both legs, his right arm and is also blinded in one eye. One of Austin's closest friends, Dr. Rudy Wells, a doctor and scientist, is a specialist in the newly emerging field of bionics. Oliver Spencer, who had recently proposed the Cyborg Project to the OSI's board of directors as a means of reducing agent casualties, is able to authorize the funding to take a severely injured Austin and rebuild him with bionics. Rudy Wells is ordered to perform the procedure on Austin. This process takes several months, though the exact length of time is not specified. (The Return of the Bionic Woman includes a line of dialogue that Austin has been bionic for "about three years" as of that episode; the episode aired in September 1975, so if it was set around the time of broadcast (as suggested below) then Austin's bionic surgery may have actually occurred in the latter part of 1972. (Note: Wine, Women and War and the subsequent series retcons some of these events to make Oscar Goldman the individual responsible for authorizing Steve's bionic surgery. Dialogue during the opening credits depict Goldman addressing a group of unidentified men indicating that the capability to create a cyborg now exists and Austin "will be that man".) * Steve Austin goes on his first mission for the OSI to Saudi Arabia. * Oscar Goldman is appointed director of the OSI, succeeding Oliver Spencer. (Speculation, somewhat contradicted by the opening credits of Wine, Women and War that as noted above retcon events to make Goldman involved in commissioning Steve's bionic replacements) * May 01 - Barney Hiller crashes race car, loses both arms and legs. (18 months prior to "Seven Million Dollar Man" episode) At some point afterward, Oscar Goldman authorizes the creation of a second cyborg. * Sep 12 - "Wine, Women and War" - August through Sept. 12th. Alexi Kaslov is killed and Austin triggers a small nuclear detonation. * Nov 17 - "The Solid Gold Kidnapping" =1974= * Jan 18 - "Population: Zero" - Steve realizes that his bionics are impaired by low temperatures. * Jan 25 - "Survival of the Fittest" * Feb 02 - "Operation Firefly" * Feb 08 - "Day of the Robot" - Steve encounters a robot for the first time. * Feb 22 - "Little Orphan Airplane" * Mar 01 - "Doomsday, and Counting" * Kelly Woods becomes the first American woman in space * Date of the telegram Jaime sends to Rona confirming her appearance at his tournament. * Mar 08 - "Eyewitness to Murder" * Mar 15 - "The Rescue of Athena One" * Mar 29 - "Dr. Wells is Missing" * Apr 12 - "Burning Bright" * Apr 19 - "The Coward" * Apr 26 - "Run, Steve, Run" * July - "The Last of the Fourth of Julys" * Sep 13 - "Nuclear Alert" * Sep 20 - "The Pioneers" * Sep 27 - "Pilot Error" * Oct 04 - "The Pal-Mir Escort" * Nov 01 - "The Seven Million Dollar Man" - Steve Austin meets Barney Hiller, the world's second bionic man. * Nov 08 - "Straight On 'Til Morning" * Nov 15 - "The Midas Touch" * Nov 22 - "The Deadly Replay" * Dec 06 - "Act of Piracy" * Dec 13 - "Stranger in Broken Fork" * Dec 20 - "The Peeping Blonde" =1975= * January - Steve Austin retrieves a stolen printing plate from Joseph Wrona, who sees Steve's face and spends the next seven months trying to locate the agent. ("The Bionic Woman Part I"; Part II establishes that seven months elapse between this event and Wrona's final encounter with Steve) * Jan 10 - "The Cross-Country Kidnap" * Jan 17 - "Lost Love" * Jan 19 - "The Last Kamikaze" * Jan 26 - "Return of the Robot Maker" - Dr. Dolenz resurfaces one last time with a new robot duplicate of Oscar Goldman in tow. Goldman is kidnapped and replaced with the robot impostor. The robot successfully steals several OSI top secret files until Steve solves the case and defeats the robot. Dolenz is finally taken into custody by the authorities. * Feb 2 - "Taneha" * Feb 23 - "Look Alike" - Steve encounters a duplicate impostor and meets Agent Marcus Grayson * Mar 2 - "The E.S.P. Spy" - Steve meets Audrey Moss and teams up with the young telepath to find the people responsible for stealing confidential information * "Outrage in Balinderry" * Peggy Callahan is hired by the OSI as Oscar Goldman's secretary. * "Steve Austin, Fugitive" - Steve meets Oscar Goldman's new secretary, Peggy Callahan. * John Hopper's twin brother frames Steve Austin for murder. Note: The episodes "Outrage in Balinderry" and "Steve Austin, Fugative" were both produced and set before before the events on "The Bionic Woman" but for reasons uknown, they were broadcast after TBW, which falsely gave the appearence that Steve got over Jaime's death too quickly" * "The Bionic Woman" Part 1 * Steve Austin relocates back to Ojai and buys a ranch. * Steve and Jaime are reunited after four years of no contact. * After a near fatal skydiving accident, Jaime Sommers receives bionic enhancements as authorized by Oscar Goldman and administered by Dr. Rudy Wells. * July * "The Bionic Woman" Part 2 * After months of training, Jaime Sommers goes on her first mission for the OSI, to obtain another printing plate from Joseph Wrona, who has spent the last seven months tracking down Steve Austin. * Jaime Sommers cliniically dies after her body rejects her bionics, forming a fatal blood clot. Unknown to Steve Austin, however, new cryogenic technology is used to keep her body functions active until the blood clot is repaired. Jaime remains unconscious for months, during which time Wells and his team nearly lose her on five separate occasions. Wells and Goldman choose not to inform Austin of any of this. * Austin and his parents mourn the loss of Jaime, whose death appears to become public knowledge (based upon comments in "Return of the Bionic Woman"). * August * Rudy Wells undergoes a complete image makeover including a hair transplant. (Author's Note: How else do we explain Rudy's drastic change in appearance ?) * September ''' * The Return of the Bionic Woman Part 1: Still grieving the loss of Jaime, Austin undertakes a routine mission but a freak accident causes massive damage to his bionic legs, forcing him to be airlifted to Wells' bionics facility in Washington where reconstruction takes place. Before falling unconscious for several days, Austin sees Jaime Sommers lying in a hospital room. Based on dialogue in "The Return of the Bionic Woman Part 1" an undisclosed amount of time passes during which Austin recuperates; he is wheelchair-bound for at least a week. During his time in the wheelchair, he spots Jaime again but is unable to get Wells or Goldman to believe him. Some time later, Austin regains the ability to use his legs and during a practise run once again spots Jaime and is finally able to convince his friends to tell him the truth. At this point (early September) Jaime has been conscious for only a few days and it is discovered that she has total amnesia. Jaime and Steve kindle a new friendship as he mentors her in the use of her bionics. Jaime, meanwhile, begins a relationship with Dr. Michael Marchetti. Note: at some point during the preceeding events, both Steve and Jaime are evidently relocated to another bionics facility in California, based upon its proximity within driving distance to Ojai and visible geographical features inconsistent with a DC locale; it isn't the Colorado Springs facility, as this is defined as a different location in Part 2. * '''Sep 14 - "The Return of the Bionic Woman" Part 1 * Sep 21 - "The Return of the Bionic Woman" Part 2: Austin and Jaime travel to Ojai in hopes of sparking memories, without apparent success as attempts by Jaime to remember her past life result in pain-memories of her blood clot. This forces Jaime to be briefly hospitalized at the local air force hospital where Wells and Marchetti have set up shop. Jaime requests to be sent on an OSI mission and is sent into the field with Austin (the mission requires her to parachute jump for the first time since her accident). Her memory problems, however, cause her to fail the mission, but not before attracting the attention of industrialist Carlton Harris. Austin decides to step back from his relationship with Jaime, and she is sent to Wells' Colorado Springs facility (with Marchetti) for further recuperation. (Sommers and Marchetti end their relationship at a later date). * Sep 28 - "The Price of Liberty" * Barney Hiller's bionics are temporarily reactivated. * Circa late 1975-early 76. For reasons unknown, Rudy Wells records a recollection of the events surrounding Austin's crash, including detail of his prior moon mission (referred to by Wells as "Moonshot XYZ") and his first OSO/OSI mission. (This refers to the narration heard in the "Moon and the Desert" version of the pilot film, which ends with Wells stating that three years had passed since Austin became bionic.) =1976= January * Steve Austin goes to Rome. Durring his time there he sends his parents a post card which will eventually arrive at the Elgin's homestead while Jaimie is moving in. Jan 11 * "Welcome Home, Jaime" - Jaime Sommers, having completed her rehabilitation, returns to Ojai where she teaches at Ventura AFB in between OSI jobs. She also moves into a loft on Jim and Helen Elgin's ranch. * Oscar and Steve leaves Ojai to organize Steve's next mission. Jan 18 * "Hocus-Pocus" - Steve Austin and Audrey Moss teams up posing as a magicians to impress a mobster and gain his confidence in the hopes of getting a lead on the purloined book. * Oscar returns to Ojai Jan 21 * "Welcome Home, Jaime (Part II) - Jaime Sommers officially becomes a part-time OSI agent and one of her first missions pits her once again against Carlton Harris. Jan 29 * "Angel of Mercy" - Jaime Sommers is sent to Costa Bravo with helicopter pilot Jack Starkey to rescue the American ambassador. *Oscar Goldman remains in California to rendezvous with Steve Austin to oversee a geological survey under way near the Californian San Andreas fault to test for any potential seismic activity. Feb 1 * "The Secret of Bigfoot" - Steve Austin encounters Bigfoot and a colony of alien scientists in the San Andreas mountain region. However his memory of their existence is erased. * Dr. Franklin makes plans to build fembots, infiltrate the OSI and then steal the OSI Weather Device. He meets and strikes a deal with Russian finance minister Baron Constantine. With the money Constantine's board of directors funded Franklin, he was able to build his first fembot, which he named Katy. Feb 18 *"A Thing of the Past" Feb 25 *"Claws" Mar 3 *"The Deadly Missiles" Mar 17 *"Bionic Beauty" - Jaime sings for the first time in the series. Mar 24 *"Jaime's Mother" Apr 7 *"Winning Is Everything" Apr 14 *"Canyon of Death" May 5 *"Fly Jaime" - Jaime encounters Romero May 12 *"The Jailing of Jaime" May 19 *"Mirror Image" - Jaime discovers that her bionic limbs do not tan. She encounters her double - Lisa Galloway - for the first time. May 26 *"The Ghosthunter" Jun 01 * "The Price of Liberty" - The Liberty Bell kidnapped by Robert Meyer - Steve saves it with help of Neils Lindstrom - federal prisoner. * Steve Austin grows a moustache. July - August * "The Bionic Boy" - Andy Sheffield, a once-athletic youngster living in a small Utah town, has been selected by an OSI computer to receive an implant to restore his paralyzed legs. Author's Note: ''Although "The Bionic Boy" was the 7th episode to air durring the 4th season, given the late Spring through late Summer time setting of the story, this episode was obviously set before the events on the SMDM and BW "The Return of Bigfoot". '' Sep 01 * Philadelphia bomb squad captain Doug Witherspoon retires 3 months after helping save the Liberty Bell. * By orders of Dr. Franklin, Peggy Callahan and Lynda Wilson are put under surveillance by Katy and Rawlins. Sep 19 - * "The Return of Bigfoot" - Gillian, an alien colonist from San Andreas mountain, makes contact with Steve Austin. She revives his memories of his previous encounter and enlists his help against their struggle against a group of renegade colonists and Bigfoot. Sep 22 * "The Return of Bigfoot (Part II) - Steve is beaten lies close to death in Rudy's facility. Jaime continues the investigation and then confronts Bigfoot on her way to retrieve an antidote to save Steve Austin's life. Sept 26 * "Nightmare in the Sky" - Steve Austin is reunited with Kelly Wood. Sept 29 * "In This Corner, Jaime Sommers" - Jaime Sommers goes undercover as Jessie "Savage Sommers", a professional lady wrestler, in order to locate a missing OSI agent. Oct 3 * "Double Trouble" Oct 6 * "Assault on the Princess" - Jaime Sommers poses as a blackjack dealer aboard a luxurious sea-going casino in order to locate two missing energy cells that can be used as bombs. Oct 17 * "The Most Dangerous Enemy" - Steve and Rudy fly to a remote island where Cheryl Osborne, a young scientist, has been working in total solitude for two years. Oct 20 * "Road to Nashville" - Jaime poses as a country singer to find a missing OSI agent, and to stop the passing of top-secret information. Oct 24 * "H＋2＋O = Death" - Steve pretends to be a defecting scientist in order to break up the Omega spy ring. * Steve returns to Washington DC to assist in the experimental weather device. * Jaime returns to Washington DC for her bionic checkup. Oct 27 *"Kill Oscar" - Baron Constantine is sent to Dr. Franklin's hidden complex to check on the progress of the investments from his board of directors. Franklin reveals his Fembot creations. Oct 28 * Franklin begins phase 1 of his scheme to obtain the weather control device. Lynda Wilson and Peggy Callahan are abducted and replaced by fembot duplicates. * Oscar sends Steve Austin to White Sands. Oct 29 * With the fembot spies in place, they set up Oscar Goldman to be an easy open target for abduction. Goldman is kidnapped and held hostage along with Wilson and Callahan in Franklin's complex. * Chief Inspector Jack Hanson takes over the OSI and interrogates the top employees of the OSI regarding events leading to Oscar’s abduction. The Callahan fembot is evasive and contradictory in her answers - arousing Jaime's suspicions. Night * Jaime goes to Callahan’s apartment, giving the appearance that she was apologizing. She then probes deeper about their past conversation hoping to get impostor to commit a significant error, which she does. Franklin commands the fembot to capture Jaime and bring her in. A fight breaks out between Jaime and the fembot. When Jaime attempted to escape through the front door, Katy was there waiting to intercept her. During their struggle, Jaime knocked the face mask off of Katy. Jaime attempts to escape through the back bedroom window. The extreme height caused severe damage to her bionic legs upon landing as she falls unconscious. * The beaten Jaime is rushed to the hospital and begins to suffer another bionic rejection. Delirious, she tried to warn Rudy about the robots while he was in the process of starting a bionic shutdown and puts her to sleep. Oct 30 * "Kill Oscar (Part II)" - Steve arrives in Washington and is devastated upon seeing Jaime in critical condition. * Despite the warning from the NSB, Steve and Rudy conduct their own investigation on Oscar's abduction and Jaime's robot story and eventually locates Franklin's base via satellite. * The Linda Wilson fembot spies on Rudy and Steve and sends information directly to Dr. Franklin's base. Franklin then prepares to set up a trap in anticipation of Steve's arrival. November Nov 3 * "Kill Oscar (Part II)" - Jaime makes a full recovery and teams up with Steve and mounts a rescue mission to save Oscar and Callahan from Doctor Franklin's complex on Saint Emils Island. * Doctor Franklin and Rawlins are taken into Federal custudy. Nov 10 * "Black Magic" - Jaime is sent to a remote island to impersonate the niece of the Carstairs family. When the family is sent on a scavenger hunt to find their dead brother's fortune, it's up to Jaime to locate it first and obtain the formula for a top-secret alloy. * The deactivated fembot duplicate of Callahan is recovered by the OSI and is eventually stored into an evidence vault. Nov 21 * "Vulture of the Andes" * Dec 24 - Steve Austin meets greedy, penny-pinching industrialist Budge. =1977= * Steve Austin encounters the first Russian Venus Space Probe. * Austin shaves off his moustache (possibly due to his upcoming Skylab mission?) * Before "Doomsday Is Tomorrow" - Steve Austin returns to space as a crewmember aboard Skylab for unrevealed reasons and for an undisclosed length of time. * "Doomsday Is Tomorrow" - Jaime Sommers literally saves the world by preventing the activation of a doomsday device. Austin is aboard Skylab and unavailable. * August - While in prison awaiting trial, Dr.Franklin becomes ill. Before he has the chance to stand trial for his crimes, Franklin succumbs to his illnesses and dies in prison. * Sep 01 - Julian Richmond is released from prison. * Tammy Cross is abducted and replaced by a fembot. * Julian Richmond hires a contract to kill Steve Austin and stop a rocket launch. * Sep 10 * "The Bionic Dog" * Oct ''' ** "Dark Side of the Moon". Steve Austin returns to the moon. ** "Fembots in Las Vegas" ** "Fembots in Las Vegas (Part II)" ** "Dark Side of the Moon (Part II)" * At some point after the events of "The Bionic Dog" and prior to the events of "Dead Ringer" and "Date With Danger (Part II)", Jim Elgin and Helen Elgin apparently both die for reasons never revealed. Their deaths are never addressed directly on either series, but later dialogue suggests they are deceased. =1978= * '''Feb 06 - Steve Austin captured, made to believe it's 1984 * May 13 - "On the Run" (final episode of The Bionic Woman airs). * Jaime Sommers goes into semi-retirement from the OSI. * Steve Austin captures Lyle Stenning (Fortress leader). Stenning is soon sentenced life to in prison =1979= * Steve Austin retires from the OSI. =1985= * Max, the bionic dog, dies. * Chris Williams is killed in the line of duty, on a mission with Jaime Sommers. =1987= * Fortress stages the ninth raid for weapons. Oscar Goldman decides to call on Steve Austin who reestablishes his association with the OSI. * Mike Austin crashes during his graduation solo flight. Rudy Wells rebuilds him with advanced bionics. * Jaime Sommers experiences a restoration of her lost memories, resulting in a rekindling of her feelings for Austin. =1989= * Barney Hiller, the world's second bionic man, is possibly deceased prior to this year. Oscar clearly states during the events of Bionic Showdown that there are only four bionic people alive at that point, with no mention of Barney. * Kate Mason becomes bionic. * Steve and Jaime at World Unity Games. =1994= *'Nov' - Bionic Ever After? - Jaime Sommers and Steve Austin are both affected by a computer virus that threatens to incapacitate their bionics. As a result, Jaime receives an upgrade to her bionics that also gives her bionic vision, and it is suggested in dialogue that Austin is also to receive an upgrade to his systems. *'Nov' - Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers are finally married. Category:Culture